Page 84 of Into Orbit

Tessa’s smile grew wider. ‘It’s a pleasure to meet you.’

‘The human Vesper was with.Vesperhadn’t hurt her, had he?’ Aster interrupted. His deep voice was tinged with worry.

‘Anna? No, she’d been –’

Tessa and I rounded on him at the same time. ‘Anna?’

Willow blinked at me, startled. ‘Yes, didn’t I mention her name?’

‘No, you didn’t,’ I said, with a calm I didn’t feel. ‘Anna is the chef at Advena. She’s tiny and blonde and pretty –’

‘And she has blue eyes,’ Willow finished.

I stared at Tessa.That would explain the radio silence. ‘Fuck.’

‘You said she was on aRothship?’ Tessa said, her brow creased.

‘Yes, but –’

The noise of the crowd rose, then dropped to a low, frightened murmur.

‘What the fuck?’ Aster muttered, turning around.

Morgan was looking up at the sky. He gave a low, savage growl, and between one blink and the next, he went from having two well-muscled legs encased in uniform dress pants to having eight sucker-lined tentacles disappearing beneath his fancy jacket.

Those tentacles were a bright, agitated red, and within another heartbeat, Tessa and Cy were encased in a nest of them.

I followed his gaze upwards.

‘Oh, green gods,’ Elswyth said.

Even from a distance, I could see that the ship hovering over the sea was spherical; light from the two small suns glinted off its silver hull.

Ashton stiffened and pulled his gun from the holster at his side, keeping it next to his thigh.

‘Roth,’ Willow whispered.

Every weapon on the ship was trained on the pavilion.

To be continued ...